Uh oh: Obama, Sarkozy caught on open mic grumbling about Netanyahu?

posted at 9:08 pm on November 7, 2011 by Allahpundit

The bad news? This is an especially stupid distraction on the eve of the new UN report confirming western fears about Iran’s nuclear weaponization program. The good news? Our new Islamist allies in Libya will be thrilled.

According to a Monday report in the French website “Arret sur Images,” after facing reporters for a G20 press conference on Thursday, the two presidents retired to a private room, to further discuss the matters of the day…

The conversation then drifted to Netanyahu, at which time Sarkozy declared: “I cannot stand him. He is a liar.” According to the report, Obama replied: “You’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!”…

The communication faux pas went unnoticed for several minutes, during which the conversation between the two heads of state – which quickly reverted to other matters – was all but open to members the press, who were still in possession of headsets provided by the Elysée for the sake of simultaneous translation during the G20 press conference…

The surprising lack of coverage may be explained by a report alleging that reporters present at the event were requested to sign an agreement to keep mum on the subject of the embarrassing comments.

Here’s the original story at Arret sur Images. I’ve never heard of that site so I have no sense of how credible it is. (French readers, repondez s’il vous plait.) The idea of The One badmouthing Bibi is completely plausible, though. Remember when he allegedly humiliated Netanyahu at the White House at a meeting in 2010, and then when Netanyahu humiliated O right back with that lecture in the Oval Office back in May about Israel’s borders? There’s no love lost here, although electoral concerns (if nothing else) will keep Obama a very willing partner with Israel for the next year. Philip Klein asks a good question, though:

All the reporters at G20 ignored it except for obscure French website? Hot mic and no one recorded?

I can buy that no one recorded it, and I can buy that some reporters would go so far into the tank that they’d sign a nondisclosure statement, but surely someone in the room would have found a scoop this juicy too irresistible and would have leaked it. The exchange between O and Sarkozy supposedly happened on Thursday; it took four days for news to break about an explosive “hot mic” exchange between the presidents of the United States and France about the prime minister of Israel? C’mon.

Anyone know if Arret is trustworthy? And if so, I want to know which reporters were in the room and refused to report.

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Judaism also encourages a lot of social activism, which is not unlike Christian missionary work and service. But that focus in addition to being a very tiny “minority” group might also encourage some bleeding heart tendencies.

haner on November 7, 2011 at 10:18 PM

And using Katzenberg again here, because he’s a loudspoken demander of re-electing Obama (and giving Obama a lot of money), he’s not being “of service,” he’s making demands.

“Well vacation is over. Back to work tomorrow. Have to get up at at 4:00, so this is good night to all.”–Bojing Fuhua Hongqi Genghis Manchu Cheng Lei Quan Xianliang Yaoting Zedong Wang Ming-tun Huntsman.

The truth be known, there are a great many liberal American Jews who can’t stand Netanyahu either, I would guess that Axelrod and Emanuel are among them, so Obama’s feelings probably have a great deal of support.

I would guess there is more than one Democrat hoping the Bibi loses his next election. They want an Israeli Prime Minister they can cajole into giving in to Palestinian demands, give up territory, and everyone live in peace and harmony. Of course, that won’t happen and Israel will cease to exist, as a country, if they listen to them, but that is the feeling among many Democrats.

So anyway, bottom line, even though he was caught saying it, it will have little consequence in this country and I’m sure those in power in Israel already know how Obama feels.

It was posted before I finished!
….magazine/paper just picked obama as one of the 50 (51) Americans that most (not sure – influenced)… Anyway the story is on The Blaze right under this story. It’s kind of amusing. I just wonder how many more Jews would be alive today if their own didn’t turn them in (a la georgie soros). I swear there is nothing obama can do that would turn some of the left wing jews against him!

I live in France and took the time to do some research on arretsurimages.net. It’s stated purpose is to provide critical reflection on the (French) main-stream media. It could be viewed as a French version of hotair. The website was started in September of 2007. Parts can be accessed for free, the rest is on a paid subscription basis. It was created by journalists associated with the French newspaper “Le Monde”, which is a center left paper that is considered by the French to be the most unbiased paper in France. So it appears to be a credible site.

I followed your link and read the original article with mentions a one sentence reference to the Obama/Sarkozy conversation here. The quote on this Le Monde journalist’s blog says (after a reference to Obama’s “joke” about Sarkozy’s daughter looking like her mother, rather than Sarkozy), “Prior to that, the two leaders privately shared their frustrations regarding their difficult relationships with the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.” (Auparavant, les deux dirigeants se sont affligés à huis clos de leurs relations difficiles avec le premier ministre israélien Benyamin Nétanyahou.) The blog doesn’t give any more information than that.

The arretsurimages.net article that you link to does not say who the journalists were, it just says that half a dozen journalists heard the conversation and then decided among themselves not to report it.

One thing to bear in mind is that France is preparing for a presidential election to be held in April and May of 2012. Sarkozy is considered to be a “conservative” by French standards (not exactly the same as a conservative in the States), and so it is possible that even an “unbiased” center left news site would be looking for opportunities to undermine him. The arretsurimages.net article also mentioned that Obama criticized Sarkozy for not letting him know ahead of time that France was going to vote in favor of letting Palestine become a full member of the UN.

“It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is merci beaucoup I hate the Jews.” Barack Hussein Obama, July 2008

and then when Netanyahu humiliated O right back with that lecture in the Oval Office back in May about Israel’s borders?

One of Bibi’s finest hours, IMO.

And I don’t know why AP or anyone else would be surprised that American reporters would agree to keep the newsworthy comments by Sarkozy and Obama quiet. The U.S. media isn’t going to report something that makes their hero Barry look like the amateur that he is. He has an election coming up, and it’s the media’s job to help him win it (just like they did in 2008).

Obama blasting the Israeli PM over an open mic and Holder asking for stricter gun controls in Congress using Fast & Furious, the debacle under his watch that killed innocent victims, as a basis indicates these buffoons are totally incompetent OR totally insane. Either way, we are in deep trouble with the most corrupt administration in our history.

This doesn’t surprise me from Sarkozy. I lived in France from 1984-1995, and the media there are very pro-Palestinian, constantly reporting every minor skirmish where a Palestinian gets injured or killed, and ignoring any stories where Israelis get killed for doing dastardly deeds like…riding a bus.

The French media would crucify Sarkozy if he was sympathetic to Bibi, but what he said is no problem for Sarkozy in France.

I love how no one ever asks if Netanyahu is a jerk and a pain in the ass. He’s the president of a small satellite state that causes more grief than help, you want to end foreign aid? Let’s start with a country that can pay for it’s own. It spies on us, gets us into unwanted conflicts, and isn’t even that good of an ally and only useful as a proxy battlefront with Iran.

I love how no one ever asks if Netanyahu is a jerk and a pain in the ass. He’s the president of a small satellite state that causes more grief than help, you want to end foreign aid? Let’s start with a country that can pay for it’s own. It spies on us, gets us into unwanted conflicts, and isn’t even that good of an ally and only useful as a proxy battlefront with Iran.

but wait we’re indebted to them for what exactly?

Zekecorlain on November 8, 2011 at 11:11 AM

Hogwash . . . it’s a state of sold values and principles and is quite unlike the Muslim radicals it must live among. In a fight I’d take Israel anytime. And by the way, when was the last time it killed several hundred Marines or attacked and destroyed parts of our cities?

Really @rplat? I’ve never heard anyone say that about him not even his allies. He cut off all peace negotiations, drove the palestinians to the UN where they successfully gained status, screwed up the transition of the revolution in Egypt. Negotiated with Hamas, continues building in he settlements that he knows they’re going to have to give up, Soured relationships with Turkey, lectured his patron country about what Israel would or wouldn’t do, and now is considering attacking Iran which would drag the US into another war.

Principled? courageous? name anything that he’s done that actually demonstrates this, did they support the revolutionaries dying for freedom? did he denounce Mubarack when he killed scores of protesters? Has he said one word to Assad about killing thousands? Turkey is more principled than Israel than they’re being led by a cunning snake.